Big Data Comes to Wales: the early Years of the DVLA 1965 – 1975
Saturday 31st January 2015, 2pm – 4pm. Admission free.
The National Waterfront Museum, Maritime Quarter, Swansea SA1 3RD
In the mid 1960s the Government decided to centralise Driver and Vehicle licensing, a function at that time undertaken by Local Authorities across the UK. A subsequent decision to computerise the records and licensing processes resulted in the creation of the DVLA, a groundbreaking major public service data processing operation. This event will explore the challenges and achievements of the early years of the organisation, and welcomes contributions from the floor in an open discussion.
The Institute of Welsh Affairs is hosting this event in partnership with Swansea University. The Department of Computer Science and the Information Services and Systems Department of the University have a History of Computing Collection, charting the history of computing and data processing, especially in Wales.
Agenda
2:00pm Welcome,
Delith Thorpe, Secretary, IWA Swansea Bay Branch
2:10pm CLP/DVLC/DVLA – A History,
Professor John Tucker, Computer Science, Swansea University
2:45pm Centralisation and Computerisation – In the beginning,
Mike Robinson, former Director of IT Services
3:00pm Open discussion,
Chaired by Prof. John Tucker
4:00pm Close,
Delith Thorpe
i believe that the computerisation and centralising of driving licenses has been a revoulution in the DVLA be able to manage the cars on road in a successful and productive way.
Being able to see who is driving what and who is legal on the road has been important to increasing legal road laws.